The road lay along the route Moscow - Ural - Siberia - Irkutsk - Baikal - Buryatia - Mongolia. Right before the exit call from Irkutsk, they ask the question: "How to get to Congress?" Word for word, and our seminar has already been scheduled.

Beautiful people, open to theosophical knowledge. Oleg Georgievich Tolstoy helped us in organizing a meeting with the Irkutsk group, an amazing person who has studied theosophical works all his life, lives according to theosophical laws, educates young people, and carries out great social and creative work in Irkutsk.

The seminar was led by Vladimir Yariy. The duration of the meeting was planned for two hours, but in the end it lasted up to four and a half. They introduced the participants to our projects, activities, touched upon the School’s achievements, talked about the activities of V.A. Bakanova, and not only we presented the material, but also the Irkutsk citizens gladly shared their experiences, talked about their projects, about their individual achievements, shared their understanding of the Teaching. It was already late evening, and everyone didnt disperse, there were so many questions and expressed interest, they listened with such kindness and sincerity. Separated friends and employees, established themselves in helping each other and interaction.

Irkutsk is a very old city, many wooden buildings and wings with wooden curls look so cute among modern houses and buildings. It was as if we were walking around the city of our childhood, where wooden windows touch the ground.

Further our path lay on Lake Baikal, in Buryatia, Mondy, across the border with Mongolia, and here we are on the expanses of the Mongolian steppes. Huge open spaces, huge clouds right above your head, yaks - Mongolian handsome men, kings of the steppes. They are shaggy like bears, but they have a speed like that, when they jump across the steppe, and they graze there, everywhere, so beautiful and attractive that I wanted to touch them all the time. Yak meat feeds the Mongols, and we drank yak milk very unusual and tasty.

Hubsugul. The lake conquered with its purity and peace. The water is clear, like a tear, every pebble is visible under its blue layer. On the horizon around the tops of blue rocks are visible, you are, as if in a bowl. Altitude is almost 1800 meters.

The water temperature is 6-10 degrees, colder than on Lake Baikal, but of course we swam. Every morning, going ashore, where there is absolutely no one, you bathe in a cold stream of clear water. The energy is such that you want to fly.

Our Mongol friends were amazed at how we swim, but the water is cold. But later they were inspired by our words about the sensations, and now they themselves bathe and say: “Well, what kind of water, I don’t want to go out !!!”

The flowers are bright, there are many edelweisses, whole fields, as in Altai, near Belukha.

Birds. There are no crows, there are real crows with blue wings, namely Crows, Messengers, bubble in a completely different way, as if they were talking. Amazing birds. And there is also a bird like a raven, but its beak and claws are orange, it is found only here, it is very beautiful. In Russian there is no name for her in Mongolian sounds like "tuyurlek".

The main sacred place in the north of Mongolia is the mountain of 13 Gods, at the foot of which we stopped. A few yurts and houses, comfortable, clean, and most importantly, almost no one ... SILENCE ...

Mountain of 13 Gods. On a huge plateau are Pillars, all in multi-colored ribbons. The highest in the middle, and, on both sides, six, somewhat smaller, Buddhist culture, a sacred place of veneration of the spirit of the mountains, the spirit of 13 Gods. Conversations of Vladimir Vasilievich with our new friends were devoted to this. 13 Gods, of course, this is the majestic Kalachakra, sacred, captured in the symbolic Pillars, outlined by a circle of stacked stones.

Mongolian forests are a special topic. There, as in European parks, all the grass seems to be trimmed, but no, these same Mongolian handsome men tried to pinch all the grass evenly, and the locals clean the dry branches of trees, and here you have a European well-groomed park, only these are the wild, unmanaged forests of Mongolia, here such a cycle.)))

It was a particular pleasure to live in a simple house on the banks of Khubsugul. A small, wooden, and Mongolian iron stove is. Still mountains, almost 2000 meters high, so it’s very cold in the evenings. Throw firewood, and now the fire is already fascinating, and you can only look at the colorful tongues of the flame, the heat very soon warms us. It’s warm and calm, like at home in childhood, with my mother.

For several days of our stay in Khubsugul, I had to transfer experience in cooking Russian cuisine, since the Mongols only eat meat and they have nothing more.))) I taught how to cook borsch, fried eggs and pancakes, and the Mongols taught me to cook poоses. The entire campaign for the exchange of Russian-Mongolian cuisine coped with the tasks, now they promised to feed Russian tourists with borsch, and pancakes!))

And now we are waiting for the road home, across all of Russia. Mountain roads, rivers, bridges, gorges, forests, fields ... and again Buryatia - Irkutsk - Siberia - Ural ... soon Moscow ... Moscow is restless, diverse, impetuous.

Memories of Khubsugul, of our new friends, the group of theosophists in Irkutsk, SILENCE, the grief of 13 Gods will remain with us forever!

Moscow - Irkutsk - Khubsugul, Mongolia. July - August, 2019